'Hero' Gets The Call

Finally, Hero is coming to American theaters. A lot of Chinese fans are a little ambivalent on this film... but at least think it's better than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

I, for one, think this movie is absolutely gorgeous. It's worth your $10 to see in the theaters.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2004/08/25/jetlihero.DTL

ASIAN POP 'Hero' Gets The Call
Star Jet Li on why nearly three years after its debut, the film is still a must-see proposition

by Jeff Yang, special to SF Gate
Wednesday, August 25, 2004


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After two and a half years in domestic-distribution limbo, Zhang Yimou's masterful martial-arts epic, "Hero," is finally coming to American theaters.

Its arrival now is both a cause for rejoicing and a source of puzzlement: The film debuted in China and elsewhere in Asia in 2002 to staggering box office returns. It won critical kudos for its lush cinematography and intricate narrative, which took what could have been a simple story -- a warrior recounting how he slew three master assassins to save the life of the would-be first emperor of China -- and layered it with multiple levels of truth and illusion. It was nominated as China's official entry in the Academy Award's Best Foreign Film category.

And, most significantly, it was acquired, with great fanfare and a reported $20 million cash layout, by art-house giant Miramax Films, which vowed publicly to fire its signature hype machine up and give the film the kind of release a work of its stature deserves.

Then it disappeared without a trace.

There's a scene in "Hero" -- one of the film's many provocative twists on the martial-arts genre -- in which two warriors, the nameless enforcer played by Jet Li and the assassin known as Sky (Donnie Yen), face off in a one-on-one duel to the death. Before either fighter actually makes a move, however, they engage in an imaginary battle, and we watch them mentally play out thrusts and ripostes, acrobatic maneuvers and gravity-defying feats, all culminating in an inevitable victory by the better swordsman. The loser then concedes the fight as having already been won -- before a single blow is even struck.

The movie was likewise the victim of a similar pre-emptive defeat. In his book "Down and Dirty Pictures," Peter Biskind reveals some of the reasons the film languished in Miramax's archives for so long. First, there were concerns about its length, which led to a standoff between Miramax and the director on substantial cuts that the studio felt were necessary to make the film viable. Then there was reported nervousness about the film's storyline, which is intricate, obscure and, Miramax executives feared, perhaps "too Chinese" for American audiences.

Finally, there was the creeping suspicion that the overwhelming success of Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was a unique occurrence -- that maybe it was a bit much to ask lightning to strike similar ground twice.

Over time, the early anticipation around the film faded. Import DVDs from Hong Kong -- handily subtitled in English -- made their way into Chinatowns across America. Zhang Yimou, Jet Li and the rest of the stellar company went on to other projects.

It took the intervention of noted Asian film buff and Miramax heavy hitter Quentin Tarantino to finally get "Hero" out of cold storage and into the multiplexes, uncut and in pristine condition. The question is, Will anyone still care?

"Everybody knows this film was already shown in Asia and Europe two years ago," concedes star Jet Li, whose belief in the film's importance has led him to set out on an active promo tour on Miramax's behalf. "A lot of people, especially the audiences who enjoy Hong Kong films, have seen it already. All of my friends have seen it already. But I still hope they can go out to see this film, because it is a special movie -- a movie that you have to see in a real theater. The sound, the color -- all of it needs to be better than you get on TV. And, of course, we also need people to support Chinese movies."

Li also notes that the film's subject matter is particularly relevant to our time, when the very notion of heroism is a matter of public debate. "I wish heroes didn't exist," he says. "Whenever we need a hero, it's because there's a problem that needs to be solved; it's because two groups of people, or two countries, are hurting one another, so a hero is needed to save us. If everyone were at peace, if everyone were happy, why would we need heroes? The world is better off without heroes."

Like Li, the film itself is ambivalent about its titular subject. It purposely doesn't answer the question it seems to raise -- What is a hero? -- and, in fact, leaves open the question of who, if anyone, in the film truly is the "hero" of its name. (Spoilers ahead.) There is Li's character, the anonymous protagonist, whose elaborate conspiracy to kill the tyrannical king drives the plot. There are the three assassins -- stolid Sky, noble Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), and passionate Snow (Maggie Cheung) -- who give their all in order to help Nameless achieve his goal.

"Different people will have different perspectives," says Li. "Some people may see the fighting and say, 'Oh, Jet Li's character is the best fighter. He's the hero.' Others may say, 'Oh, the lovers who sacrificed themselves, they are the true heroes.' And some might even say the king of Qin is the hero, because he unified the culture, unified the language, unified everything and ended the constant warfare. It is the audience's decision, and they will all decide differently."

Li believes the debate over the nature of heroism is likely to be divided along cultural lines. "Asia and the West have very different ways of thinking," he says. "In Asia, people believe that heroes should say, 'My family is not important. My city is not important. The most important thing is my country. If I have no country, how can I have a city? If I have no city, how can I have a family?' But in the West, the priorities go the other way. The hero must protect his wife, his daughter, his son, his dog. He would say, 'If I can't protect my family, how can I protect my city? If I can't protect my city, how can I protect my nation?' So Americans may find Nameless's behavior strange, but Chinese people will understand."

That sense of difference -- that gap in cultural comprehension -- is something Li still feels daily, even though he has now lived and worked in the United States for half a decade. "When American people see a Chinese guy on screen, they still think, 'Oh, you must know how to fight.' Not, 'Oh, you're a smart guy. You're a nice guy' -- it's always, 'Oh, you must know martial arts,'" says Li.

"It's frustrating, because Hollywood only expects a certain thing from me. There are a lot of movies I want to make, and the studios aren't interested -- and it's not just me," he adds, noting that director John Woo and actor Jackie Chan, for all their success, face the same roadblocks.

Li, whose Buddhist faith has grown deeper over the years, now finds himself in the awkward position of being a natural pacifist stuck playing stereotypically violent roles. "I know that this is a business, and people want a guarantee that a movie will make money. If I'm the studio president, I would make the same decision," he says. "But it's always the same formula, again, again, again. 'Oh, "Romeo Must Die" makes $60 million, so let's put Jet Li with another black actor. Let's have Jet play a robot fighting machine, or a secret agent. As long as we spend less than $30 million, that's OK.'

"I think that for all Asian actors, it's the same situation," Li adds. "But I feel like I have a responsibility. I don't want young Western people to just be looking at Asians and saying, 'OK, man, I'm going to kick your ass.'"

And so "Hero" has taken on a deeper personal meaning for Li -- not merely because of its artistic sweep or its representation of Chinese history and cultural character. For Li, "Hero" is a film about the highest level of martial arts, the level that comes only with a deeper wisdom about human nature. "We say that martial arts has three levels," he adds. "The first level is about skill -- about turning your body into a weapon, or making a weapon a part of your body. The second is about turning your heart into a weapon -- your courage, your skill, your stance, so that, even without fighting, your opponent will feel defeated. But the third level is about having no weapons at all. The third level is about love."

Li's unnamed protagonist makes a journey that none of the other characters in "Hero" makes -- one from being a living weapon to being an instrument of sacrifice for the greater good, an instrument of love.

"I have wanted to make this film for a long time," says Li. "It is a film that uses violence to talk about the importance of nonviolence. If I beat you up, you may say you will change, but in your heart you will not change. You will tell your son, 'Kill him,' your grandson, 'Kill him.' But if I let you beat me up, if I show you my love, only then can I change you. Only then can I make you forget your anger and your hate."

In this day and age, that lesson alone may make "Hero" worth the viewing.

 

Hero is definitely not what a lot of people expect from the get-go.

It is NOT an adventure story like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon": a magical jaunt through Middle-Kingdom with fantastic characters doing fantastic things. It's not meant to be entertaining at that level.

It's not a surprise that Quentin Tarantino loved the movie, since it's very his style... the movie isn't so much about the story that it tells (I could tell you "what happens" in about 10 words), but more about how the story is presented.

Hero's political undertones have been argued for years. I think the truth is the story could've been interpreted in a political way no matter *what* the outcome was. It is the world that is too politicized, not the movie.

No spoilers here... but let's just put it this way for those who've seen the movie: If we flip the ending around a full 180 degrees, then wouldn't the movie be a call for personal sacrifice, in order to resist foreign imperialism? Wouldn't it be a call for Iraqis to keep fighting the United States? It's a movie. I think there's a message here, but stop trying to connect the dots to what we see on the nightly news (in the US or China).

And finally... absolutely this movie MUST be seen in the theaters.